set your mind at rest, let your dreams run free

[cleverness]

After the new year's debacle, Hermione has been doing a great deal of thinking. More and more, as she hears about the history of Darrow and sees the troubles that it experiences, she's started to believe that the people of Darrow need to be better informed about threats out there, or at the very least, to have some knowledge of how one might possible fend similar threats in the future.

Most of all, given what she saw of the people who were trying to help in the chaos, Hermione knows that the magic of those who are capable needs to be cultivated. Needs to be nurtured, and trained. Even if it comes at the risk of people using their powers for selfish reasons, Hermione prefers to have faith in the nature of mankind, one that's generally well-intentioned, and worth arming with a good defense.

How she plans on going about it is another story, and probably needs to start small. Hermione's tutored peers in the past, but almost all of them had an upbringing mired in magic. She can't assume the same level of familiarity here, and certainly not a similar foundation of knowledge.

Which is why she texted Lafayette, asking if she could speak with him briefly at his apartment. Now that she's at his doorstep, of course, she feels slightly more nervous about the topic at hand. But, if nothing else, he seems like a sensible man with a good head on his shoulders, and a decent person with whom to start.

Taking a deep breath, she knocks smartly on his door, loosening the scarf wrapped warmly around her neck.

Comments

[cleverness]

"Are nice words not what you're looking for?" Hermione asks, wincing slightly with her lack of surety. Is comparing the apartment to his fashion too much? Neither really seems to be indicative of his gender, as far as she's observed. She's always gotten the sense of Lafayette being a man, even if he doesn't dress in the same way as most of the men Hermione knows.

She folds her hands on her lap, pressing her lips thinly. With decent intentions, she's pretty sure Lafayette won't turn her out, and she smiles faintly when he returns with the mugs.

"I'll tell you why you should be sold on the idea of getting educated, Lafayette, and I'm not going to mince words. Regardless of whether or not you take what you learn and use it, the only way you'll have a choice in doing it is if you understand your powers and how to keep them under control. That's why schooling is mandatory, where I'm from. If left without guidance, a witch or wizard could easily perform deeds that they never meant for. Powers are volatile. Even if you never want to use them again, it's easier to avoid them once you've learned how."

[voodooqueer]

“I ain’t a fucking idiot,” Lafayette tells her, settling onto the couch nearby and leaning back comfortably, his own cup of tea steaming and clutched between his fingers for warmth. “No offense. I mean it in the best way, I guess is what I want to say. But I ain’t dumb. Saying that, you ain’t telling me nothing new. The only way anybody ever have power over something, including themselves, is if they understand it. You want to survive, you gotta understand. And I tell you the very first thing about myself: I’m a survivor. I’m gonna do what I got to do for myself. Even if I ain’t totally comfortable to start out with. So don’t start me with basics. Don’t start me with cautions or rules or theories. That’s the shit I can figure out on my own, by my own terms. I don’t want to know how to build a gun or why I should keep the safety on I wanna learn how to shoot it. Can you gimme that?”

[cleverness]

"Well... no offense, but it's taken us this long to have this talk," Hermione points out with a small smile and a pointedly arched brow. They've had plenty of time to make a connection before this, particularly after having fun into one another at the magic store, with Hermione discovering the poltergeist in the locket. She suspects, however, that Lafayette needed to settle into the city first. And perhaps, needed for things to shake up a little before coming to the realization that sitting still won't keep him safe for long.

His question, however, is a good one. Hermione glances briefly down at her lap.

"I am fairly sure that I can help you learn how to shoot your gun, yes. Bearing in mind that shooting a gun has never been my greatest strength. Knocking guns out of other people's hands, perhaps. Putting on a bulletproof vest. And it will take me some time to learn the particulars of what it is you can do, as opposed to those from my world. But a gun is a gun," she says, tilting her head. "I'm confident we'll find out how to manage. Have you ever accidentally fired it off before, so to speak?"

[voodooqueer]

"Which don't change the fact that I don't like feeling patronized," Lafayette returns, to make his point, though without any heat or offense. He just has expectations, about how he communicates with people, especially when he's in the position he's in. Hermione can't meet them, even if she'd like to, if he doesn't communicate them clearly.

Anything else leads to trifling bullshit, and he isn't interested in trifling bullshit.

He's interested in controlling his magic.

He holds up a hand "Pausing the extended metaphor. What I want is a tool that can protect me. What I decide to do with it afterward is my shit, right? Pretty much the only time I used what's in me is by accident. Once or twice, I had actual intent. But it's not really a tool when you don't use it without intent to begin with. That's what I want to do."

[cleverness]

Hermione surveys him for a few seconds, before she lets out a soft snort in amusement. Lafayette's words pull her easily back to fifth year, to how everything had changed when the Ministry stepped in to control their schooling. Refused them the opportunity to cast spells, as though that might make things more peaceful in the future, without young adults to render the world more chaotic than it already was.

She can understand the point that Lafayette makes. Who is she to be the one to decide who does or doesn't get to wield a weapon?

This place certainly could merit it.

"I think I can," she says with an arch of her brow. "And... if I can't, it won't be through lack of trying. I'll need your help, though. Anything that you might have heard or learned about your abilities before you came into the city, I'll need to know. It will give me the opportunity to scour my resources for any information I may have, and for me to think about where we could go to practice. From what you've told me, most of what you know seems to be about working as a medium? What kind of accidents have you had, exactly?"